Hailey Tran
Elyn Saks is a legal scholar, an author, and a professor of law, psychology, and psychiatry at the University of Southern California Law School. Saks has schizophrenia and has been hospitalized several times due to psychotic episodes. She has spent hundreds of days in psychiatric hospitals and was once hospitalized for five months, during which she was forcibly restrained and given antipsychotic medication. Despite her struggles, Saks has achieved numerous academic and scholarly accomplishments and is a respected professor and author.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Number of times hospitalized | Hundreds of days, including a five-month hospitalization |
| Reason for hospitalization | Schizophrenia, psychosis, paranoia, depression |
| Treatment during hospitalization | Restraints, seclusion, forcible medication |
| Personal feelings about hospitalization | Hospitals are "bad, they're mad, they're sad. One must stay away." |
| Proudest accomplishment | Avoiding hospitalization for three decades |
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What You'll Learn
- Elyn Saks has spent hundreds of days in psychiatric hospitals
- She has schizophrenia and has experienced psychosis and hallucinations
- Saks was forcibly restrained and medicated during her first hospitalisation
- She avoided hospitalisation for three decades, her proudest accomplishment
- Saks is a respected academic and legal scholar
Elyn Saks has spent hundreds of days in psychiatric hospitals
Elyn Saks is a respected legal scholar, an associate dean, and a professor of law, psychology, and psychiatry at the University of Southern California Law School. She is also a cancer survivor and has lived with schizophrenia for most of her life. Saks has written about her experience with the illness in her award-winning best-selling autobiography, The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness, published in 2007. In her book, she describes her journey of horrors and demons of schizophrenia through the perspective of both an expert and a sufferer. She also talks about how she managed to craft a good life for herself despite her dire prognosis.
Saks has spent hundreds of days in psychiatric hospitals, mostly against her will. Her first hospitalization was during her first year at Yale Law School, where she experienced her first psychotic episode and was diagnosed with chronic paranoid schizophrenia. During her five months of hospitalization, she was forcibly restrained, kept in seclusion, forcibly medicated, and given little privacy. She spent up to 20 hours in mechanical restraints, with her arms and legs tied down and a net tied tightly across her chest. This experience contrasted with the treatment she received after a previous psychotic episode at Oxford University, where her analyst listened to her without judgement and did not threaten to put her in the hospital or call the police.
Saks has had a hospital ward named after her at Pelham Woods Hospital in Dorking, England. She also founded the Saks Institute for Mental Health Law, Policy, and Ethics, which aims to advance the understanding of mental illness and address issues such as the excessive use of force in encounters between law enforcement and individuals with mental health challenges. Despite her many academic and scholarly accomplishments, she considers avoiding hospitalization for three decades her proudest accomplishment.
In addition to her academic and legal writing, Saks has also given a TED talk and spoken at various conferences about living with schizophrenia. She emphasizes that "illness of any kind need not define an individual" and asks that people with mental illness be seen clearly, honestly, and compassionately. She also fights the stigma associated with mental illness by stating that people with psychosis are not different from those without it.
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She has schizophrenia and has experienced psychosis and hallucinations
Elyn Saks is a respected legal scholar and professor of law, psychology and psychiatry at the University of Southern California Law School. She has schizophrenia and has experienced psychosis and hallucinations. Saks has spent hundreds of days in psychiatric hospitals, where she has been restrained and forcibly medicated. She has written about her experiences in her memoir, "The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness", and in a TED talk.
Saks first started experiencing symptoms of mental illness when she was eight years old, but her first full-blown episode occurred while she was studying at Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar. During her first year, she began exhibiting symptoms indicative of depression and mild paranoia. She had another breakdown while at Yale Law School, where she was forcibly hospitalized and restrained. She spent five months in hospital, during which she was restrained for up to 20 hours a day, forcibly medicated, and kept in seclusion with little privacy.
Saks has described her experiences of psychosis, during which she has had delusions that she has killed people with her thoughts, or that nuclear explosions are about to go off in her brain. She has also experienced hallucinations, such as seeing a man with a raised knife. During these episodes, her speech and thinking become disorganized to the point of incoherence. Despite these challenges, Saks has managed to avoid hospitalization for over 30 years, which she considers her proudest accomplishment.
Saks takes medication for her schizophrenia, and has said that psychosis is not an on-off switch, but a dimmer switch. She has learned to manage her illness and live the life she wants to live, and has had a successful career focused on advocating for others with mental illness. She has also studied high-functioning people with schizophrenia, who experience mild delusions or hallucinatory behaviour while leading otherwise successful lives.
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Saks was forcibly restrained and medicated during her first hospitalisation
Elyn Saks is a respected legal scholar, law professor, and author who has dedicated her life to raising awareness about mental health and challenging the stigma surrounding it. She has schizophrenia and has spent hundreds of days in psychiatric hospitals. During her first hospitalisation, Saks was forcibly restrained and medicated, an experience she describes as traumatic and humiliating.
Saks's first hospitalisation occurred during her first year at Yale Law School when she experienced her first psychotic episode. She was hospitalised for five months and, during this time, was subjected to long-term mechanical restraints and forcible medication. She describes being restrained for up to 20 hours, with her arms and legs tied down and a net tied tightly across her chest. This experience left her feeling dehumanised and disempowered. In an interview, she recalled:
> "I never struck anyone. I never harmed anyone. I never made any direct threats. If you’ve never been restrained yourself, you may have a benign image of the experience. There’s nothing benign about it. Every week in the United States, it’s been estimated that one to three people die in restraints. They strangle, they aspirate their vomit, they suffocate, they have a heart attack."
Saks's experience of mechanical restraints and forcible medication during her first hospitalisation had a profound impact on her. It influenced her academic and legal writing, which focuses on the intersection of law and mental health, and her advocacy work challenging the use of force in the treatment of people with psychiatric illnesses. In her work, she emphasises the destructive impact that force and coercion can have on individuals with mental health issues.
Saks's experience during her first hospitalisation also shaped her perspective on the mental health care system. She favours a hands-off approach, arguing that over-intervention can be more harmful than beneficial. She believes that individuals with mental illnesses should be treated with compassion and understanding rather than force and coercion. Despite the challenges she faced during her first hospitalisation, Saks was able to rise above her diagnosis and create a meaningful and impactful life for herself. She serves as an inspiration to many, demonstrating that a mental illness diagnosis need not define an individual's life trajectory.
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She avoided hospitalisation for three decades, her proudest accomplishment
Elyn Saks is a respected professor of law, psychology, and psychiatry at the University of Southern California Law School. She is also a cancer survivor and has schizophrenia. In her best-selling book, 'The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness', Saks recounts her journey through schizophrenia and her experience with the illness. She has spent hundreds of days in psychiatric hospitals, often restrained and medicated against her will. Despite her many academic and scholarly accomplishments, she considers avoiding hospitalisation for three decades her proudest accomplishment.
Saks first started experiencing symptoms of mental illness when she was eight years old. However, she had her first full-blown episode while studying as a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University. During her first year, she began exhibiting symptoms indicative of depression and mild paranoia. She also started to experience delusions and hallucinations, believing that she had killed hundreds of thousands of people with her thoughts and that nuclear explosions were about to go off in her brain.
After Oxford, Saks went on to Yale Law School, where she had another breakdown. This resulted in her first hospitalization. She spent five months in a hospital ward, often restrained and forcibly medicated. During this time, she was also kept in seclusion and had little privacy. Despite the challenges of living with schizophrenia, Saks has been able to rise above her diagnosis and become a respected legal scholar. She asks that people with mental illness be seen clearly, honestly, and compassionately.
Saks's academic and legal writing focuses on the intersection of law and mental health. She has also founded the Saks Institute for Mental Health Law, Policy, and Ethics at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. The institute highlights one important mental health issue per academic year and is a collaborative effort between seven USC departments. In addition to her scholarly work, Saks has also given a popular TED talk about living with schizophrenia and has been involved in an opera based on her memoir.
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Saks is a respected academic and legal scholar
Elyn Saks is a respected academic and legal scholar. She is a certified academic powerhouse, having been awarded a Marshall Scholarship to study at the University of Oxford and a MacArthur "Genius Grant". She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, an affiliate member of the American Psychoanalytic Association, and a board member of Mental Health Advocacy Services. She is also the founder and faculty director of The Saks Institute for Mental Health Law, Policy, and Ethics at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law.
Saks is an associate dean and Orrin B. Evans Professor of Law, Psychology, and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Southern California Gould Law School. She is an expert in mental health law and has written extensively about her experiences with schizophrenia in her award-winning bestselling autobiography, The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness. She has also given a popular TED talk about living with schizophrenia, which has been viewed over 3 million times.
In her academic and legal writing, Saks focuses on the intersection of law and mental health. She has studied the destructive impact that force and coercion can have on the lives of people with psychiatric illnesses, both during treatment and in interactions with law enforcement. She has also examined the excessive use of force in encounters between law enforcement and individuals with mental health challenges.
Saks has been recognized for her scholarly achievements, receiving the Associate's Award for Creativity in Research and Scholarship and the Phi Kappa Phi Faculty Recognition Award in 2004. She was also selected as a MacArthur Foundation fellow in 2009, receiving a $500,000 grant to establish the Saks Institute for Mental Health Law, Policy, and Ethics. Additionally, she has been invited to speak at various conferences and events, including the Oregon Law & Mental Health Conference and Penn Law's Fund for the Study of Behavioral Health Law and Policy.
Despite her many accomplishments, Saks considers avoiding hospitalization for three decades her proudest accomplishment. She has been open about her struggles with mental illness and has worked to reduce the stigma associated with it, advocating for people with mental illness and highlighting the importance of seeing people with mental illness clearly, honestly, and compassionately.
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Frequently asked questions
Elyn Saks has been hospitalized multiple times due to her struggle with schizophrenia.
Elyn Saks has spent hundreds of days in psychiatric hospitals.
Elyn Saks was hospitalized for five months during her first year at Yale Law School.
Yes, Elyn Saks has avoided hospitalization for three decades following her first admission.
